I was surprised when a child asked me this the other day. What on earth is she writing about, I wondered, given that the title of the story was supposed to be ‘My First Day at Pirate School’. I obviously looked puzzled, so she elaborated, ‘I can spell first and second but I don’t know…
Month: February 2018
Chatting up a monk
When I saw the sign, I couldn’t resist – I’ve always wanted to chat a monk up, so I dashed over to the monk assignation area. My monk was called Claim, and he told me all about his life in the monastery and at the university attached to the monastery, where he studies Pali, which…
First, coat your elephant liberally with mud …
Have just returned from a few days in Chiang Mai, where I learnt two very useful new skills – firstly, how to give an elephant a mud bath, and secondly, how to wash the mud off again. The elephants at the rescue centre have been rescued from performance venues in Thailand – all except the…
What do Donald Trump, the Prince of Wales and three ugly-looking ladies have in common?
The answer could well be that they all have names that I find easy to remember – which is a definite bonus these days. The new school year has brought with it a whole set of new name problems for me … and I used to think I was good with names. Having finally got…
You can wear any colour you like … as long as it’s red
Things are hotting up for Chinese New Year next week. Interestingly, it’s always called Chinese New Year, or CNY, even by the Chinese. In our usual imperialist way, the West seems to have commandeered the term ‘New Year’ for 1 January – so perhaps we should embrace diversity, acknowledge that other New Years exist and…